THE STORY OF HAZARD, KY. - THE PEARL OF THE MOUNTAINS

THE STORY OF HAZARD, KY. - THE PEARL OF THE MOUNTAINS

by
Louis Pilcher and published in June 1913

Excerpts by John F. "Freddie" Wilson

2006



PART 1

On arriving in Hazard, the most noticeable is the new fifty-thousand dollar court house, a model of arctitecture, with electric lights, water works, fire-proof vaults, and modern fixtures; clock, and water tower for sewerage; toilets and fire protection. Delegations and committees are visiting with a view of replacing their old court houses with similar buildings, for it appears to be a building without a "job" in it; and it is a credit to the intelligence of the County Judge and the Justices. It was designed and built by B. F. Smith, Architect, Washington, D. C., and lack of space forbids a full description.

The Johnson Building, The Wooton & Morgan Building, The First National Bank Building, The Perry County State Bank, all with fine offices, with conveniences, toilets, closets, ect., and the new Hotel Beaumont three stories, with barber shop and baths in basement, are next to attract the eye of the visitors.

More pretentious buildings are comtemplated. R. O. Davis, the Merchant, is to replace the burnt district with stone and brick building, and Carr Davis, a new pressed brick two-story store room, recently built; and excavtion is in progress for another big business house, opposite the Hotel Beaumont.

The new L. & N. depot, and the new iron and steel bridge are first seen by travelers, and all of which means that Jackson will have to look to her laurels in the rivalry for supremacy.

Hazard is already in the wholesale trade with the Hazard Grocery Company already doing a good county trade, and shipping orders both ways on the railway, and other lines will doubtless prosper by this pioneer example. The drug fixtures in the two drug stores, in new buildings are a credit to the enterprise of the companies and their soda fountains, cost each, over one thousand dollars.

The Hazard Herald and job printing office was established nearly two years ago and the paper is a credit to Kentucky newspapers, the manager having spent several years in Chicago and is a member of International Typographical Union No. 16.

Hazard is well supplied with restaurants, and all kinds of mercantile establishments, and the spirit of trading at home is commendable, the clothing, shoes, dry goods, and millinery being well and tastefully selected, and I hear that goods are sold at retail here as cheap as in Lexington, and since the railroad groceries and other supplies are greatly reduced in prices.

The increased volume of business and banking is surprising, one grocery, retail merchant having told me that his cash sales had increased over $500 the past month. The merchants and bankers are all live wide-awake advertisers, in the local paper, and in other mediums to reach prospectors and investors. The Courier-Journal recently contained a page writeup, with illustrations, the cost of it being paid by one man.

The spirit of thrift is manifested on all sides. Contractors and builders and mechanics are on the rush and sign painters who know how to spell and punctuate are needed; many new stores being without attractive signs.

[Note: for the next page and 1/2 the author rants and berates the town for it's muddy streets - pavement had not yet come to Hazard - Freddie]

Perry County was formed in 1820 and I hear that Hazard was surveyed a year later. The local Old Mortality is historian and delver in tradition Historian Baker, and hense, the Centential, is soon to arrive, and it is the prediction that Hazard will make more progress in the interim, than it has during all these years, and I believe it too, without doing violence to my credulity.

Now I see oxen teams pulling shack buildings away to make room for stone and brick buildings, and then fires will not be built in the streets to b'ile clothes, and "three contagious diseases" will not be neglected, as they are alleged to be by the local newspaper, The Hazard Herald to quote from one of Editor Trosper's vigorous editorials on "Cleanliness." Then kodak pictures, now made by students from a distance, will be prised as curiosities, and the The Ten Thousand Club will have realized its present predictions. At a recent school commencement the little organ and player piano were thrown into the ash heap, for we have real musicians and talented pianists, and all of which, and more, shows the trend of city building as exemplified in many other developments in town and county, since the completion of the railroad Extension from Jackson to McRoberts.

The population is now over double what it was a year ago when the railroad arrived, and of course it is so shifting and unstable that it is hard to estimate, except approximately, at say one thousand, at the lowest, in the ebb tide. The street scenes after the arrival of trains is more animated than elsewhere, as Hazard is about midway between Jackson and Jenkins. I might call it the human division point and possibly the mountain nucleus around which the chief town will be built.

The Combs family and the Campbell family were the first owners of the land here and hereabout, and they are still in evidence and prominent, the present County Judge being Hon. J. G. Campbell, and D. Y. Combs being owner of real estate, a merchant, landlord, and coal mining owner.

Excavations are constantly in progress for new buildings, and in consequence, it seems impossible to keep Main Street clean, as water mains are being laid for a water works and sewerage, concrete side walk building is of necessity being delayed. These little matters for criticism will soon be a thing of the past, and they are met with in every town that is not "done" to a turn, and on the retrograde.

Removal of men and goods from place to place with ease means progress, and I think the one-cent bridge fare for pedestrians will soon be obviated, as it now is at Whitesburg and Jackson, where the counties freed them. At times I have noticed men and women on horseback fording the river to avoid the toll, a mere pittance, but always at hand, and it seems a hardship.

Speaking of sign painters reminds me that soon there will be dazzling electrical signs to make Hazard attractive and its street inviting at night, there being some bad places in the few surviving wooden sidewalks.

PART 2


Here are the present officials of the thirty-third Judicial district, and the county are: L. D. Lewis, Circuit Judge; Ira Fields, Prosecuting Attorney; J. G. Campbell, County Judge; C. W. Napier, County Attorney; J. D. Davis, County Clerk; Lee Damiel, Circuit Clerk; Frank Horn, Sheriff; John McIntosh, Superintendent of Schools; R. C. Baker, Jailor; A. B. Combs, Assessor; Joe Smith, Surveyor; Calvin Stacy, Coroner.

I spent several days in the court house offices and found the officials uniformly courteous and obliging, and my thanks are due Circuit Clerk, Lee Daniel for assistance, advise and favors; office room and use of typewriter, ect. Mr. Daniels term of office will not expire fpr two years, and he will, in all probability receive an endorsement. Circuit Clerks are all nearly overworked and receive no salaries, their compensation coming from fees and forfeitures. Mr. Daniel was active in the organization of the new Knights of Pythias Lodge just organized, with a fine membership. Mr Daniel is Grand Chancellor. The other fraternal orders are Masons, Odd Fellows, Red Men and Owls now being organized.

I recently read a book, giving a history of all Kentucky feuds, but as the spirit seems as dead as Hector or a Dickens' door nail, I felt but little interest in the subject, which the author appeared to faithfully portray. There is nothing in the book that I care to put in mine, as the reign is now peaceful, and industrial, with no possibility of any recurrences of any "unpleasantness."

The mountains are now being set out in all the Spring beauty too gorgeous and overwhelming in grandeur to indulge in descriptive powers, for they seem so poor and inadequate. The beholder is simply stunned. They must be seen, by lovers of the grand and magnificent, to enjoy their beauty and grandeur, and besides, my space will not admit of fine writing, which is often tedious reading, when not done with the touch of literary experts, like Chas. Egbert Craddock (Miss Murfree) or to be found in the poems of Theodore O'Hara, George W. Ranck, and John Fox.

Since the Express companies refuse to deliver shipments of liquor and everybody is duly sober, the leading topic, when business is over, and on Sundays, the drinkers regale each other with "dry" stories, the subject seeming endless. It is now said that the moonshiners are working overtime, and a white and vile decoction, it is said, is sometimes obtainable with a potash basis to make it "strong", and killing. No bottled in bond, wet goods are obtainable nearer than Winchester. Malt mead and other substitutes, the officials say, are no longer to be had, as the case here in February. We drop the subject as too dry for publication.

The coal and timber development here is remarkable, and is now merely in the initiative stage; it is all and more than any of the boosters dream of, but mark me, in time, among the great bread winners and money getters here, will be improved farming, stock raising, poultry and eggs, fruit and melon growing, grape culture, tobacco culture, truck gardening, for the soil and climate is fine for these mere "side issues" as they are regarded now; things that all the industrious people can engage in and share in, and it will be absolutely necessary as the coal and timber interests will soon be in the hands of the few, many of whom reside elsewhere, and these sources of revenue will be here and flourishing, long after timber is gone, as it has elsewhere. This country is well adapted to the growing of tomatoes, cabbages, potatoes, and I hear that the finest flavored apples and pears grow in great abundance, and trees begin to bear in three years. I hear of one man who has several fine flourishing apple and peach orchards.

The market is now easily reached. More attention will now be paid to hogs and sheep, and better strains of live stock are constantly introduced, and the era of general prosperity is yet to come, I hear from reliable sources along these side lines, as they are now looked upon. Let us not despise the day of the small things. See what the mountain hen is already doing, and give General Diversification a chance, and you, who have neither coal mines nor timber forests, have many other opportunities, as this soil and climate is especially favored. Among the successful fruit growers here, especial mention should be made of Mr. A. C. Rhinehart, whose example should be emulated, if only in a small way, by small farmers.

[Note: From here on in the book are short bios of companies and then bio sketches of noted Hazard citizens. Freddie]

COAL MINING

Coal mining here at Hazard is now in the infancy of its evolution three mines just opening up in a small way as a beginning of what will soon prove to be the leading feature. A few miners may now be seen going to and returning from the nearby mines and the local trade is now supplied at home. The Raccoon Coal Company of which much is expected may be seen from the railroad, commissary tipples, ect. The commissary and hotel is managed by Alvis Combs, brother of Monroe Combs of Jassamine County, Ky. Another is the Jewel Coal Company and there is the D. Y. Combs mines. The Slemp interests in mineral and timber lands are extensive. The local secretary is J. B. Hoge who is also interested in other local enterprises. These interests and others are expected to make Hazard the Commercial Center of the mountains.

TIMBERMEN

Timbermen and lumber dealers and saw mills the country over have made Hazard the headquarters and the hotels are crowded with agents buying lands and logs and walnut stumps, one for the latter I. T. Kempf who ships to a Chicago company the stumps being used for pianos and veneering. The registers of the Combs Hotel and the Hotel Beaumont have names daily from Virginia, Tennessee and other states. These buyers congregate largely at the old historic Combs Hotel despite the fact that there is a new and modern hostelry as the former has so long been the rendezvous for them and there they swap experiences and tell of their impressions, their troubles and comic miseries and there many of the old drummers still stop, the new one's going to the new place.

BUSY STENOGRAPHERS

Typewriting machines are thick in Hazard, and there are a number of stenographers and typists busy as bees in the clover. Among them are Misses Deatta Donivan of Harrodsburg, Ky.; Carolyn Adams of Bowling Green, Ky.; Laura J. Meredith of Jellico, Tenn.; Georgia Cornett, Arch and Floyd Cornett, James Fitzpatrick, Dewey Daniel, John and Sam Ward, L. C. Campbell, Bradley Stacy, and David Hall. Nearly all of the lawyers and officials use machines.

HAZARD BRIDGE COMPANY

A stroke of private enterprise was the building of the steel bridge at a cost of $15,000. It is 320 feet long not including the approaches and the piers are of concrete and being a private enterprise of course it is a toll bridge the minimun of one cent fare for foot passengers. The incorporators are; B. P. Wootton, President; J. L. Morrison, Vise-President; E. C. Wootton, Treasurer; J. B. Hoge, Secretary. It is believed that the County will eventually purchase the bridge and make it free.

HAZARD GRADED HIGH SCHOOL

The pride of Hazard is the Graded High School which was organized in 1911 and it includes the County. The building will cost some $20,000 and $12,000 was voted in bonds. It is three stories and basement 70 by 86 feet being built of brick and stone. It will be ready for the fall tern of 1913. It will have large recitation rooms, music rooms and spacious assembley hall and rooms for library and faculty with all modern conveniences. It is located on a commanding site on Broadway with an acre and one-half for campus and more land will be added. The trustees are; B. P. Wootton, W. C. Eversole, John D. Ward, W. O. Davis and W. C. Combs.

PART 3

HAZARD WATER COMPANY

The Hazard Water Company is capitalized at $10,000 and it is now completed and in operation. The plant is located across the river east of the L. & N. depot with the reservoir cut out of solid stone up high on the cliff which will hold sufficient water for fire protection and domestic and drinking purposes. The pressure wil be ample to force water over the highest buildings and the water will be pure and wholesome as the filtering plant will be built at once.
The officers of the Company are: Joseph Johnson, President; J. L. Morrison, General Manager; L. F. Brashear, Treasurer; J. B. Hoge, Secretary.
The capacity is 150,000 gallons and the reservoir is 300 feet above the street level. In connection with this, a sewerage system amd macadam streets and concrete sidewalks, are being built.

SAW MILLS

There are two saw and planing mills here, one The Home Lumber Co. and the other operated by the Johnson & Jones, the former on this or the town side of the river, and the other on the opposite side, both however, conveniently located for local delivery and shipping, and both mills are running.

HAZARD TELEPHONE COMPANY

The Hazard Telephone Company is owned by Mr. Wm. Strong who bought the plant from Mr. R. O. Davis of Hazard seven years ago as a small plant, and today he is operating over three hundred telephones in Perry ounty. The office is now in Mr. Strong's residence situated near the court house, and as the business has outgrown the present quarters he will build a large office on Main Street and put in improved equipment and add a night service.

The telephone system is now operated in connection with the long-distance and telegraph systems; with the Cumberland Telephone System at Jackson and the Bell Telephone Company at Prestonsburg. He will put in an improved drop board and cable and latest equipment. The system now connects with Cornettsville, Hyden, Whitesburg, Buckhorn, and points west. Miss Bertha Greer is the proficient telephone operator here, and she is assisted by Mrs. Strong. Buck Akeman is one of the linemen at Chavis and W. R. Adams is another at Viper Postoffice.

Mr. Strong has other interests in Hazard, owning two cottages and is alive to all enterprises. Mr. Strong belongs to the well-known and influential Strong family of Eastern Kentucky, and he was born in Breathitt County, January 10, 1876, where he received a common school education and afterward engaged in teaching. For some time he was engaged in the long distance service at Hyden and Jackson. Mrs. Strong was Miss Clarissa Singleton of Viper, Perry County. They have a pretty cottage situated on one of the most picturesque locations, with a pretty lawn and ornamental trees.

Quite a number of Mr. Strong's friends have been urging him to announce his candidacy for the important office of County Court Clerk, and he has acceded to their wishes. He is an expert accountant and rapid in penmanship and is fully qualified for the office to which he now aspires. The holding of the office will in no way conflict with the telephone business which will be in the most capable hands.

HAZARD LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

An enterprise that will add greatly to the general progress of Hazard and Perry County is the Hazard Light and Power Company, incorporated for $10,000, and the personnel of the plant is: J. T. Lovelace, President; B. P. Wootton, Vice-President; W. E. Hemphill, Secretary-Treasurer and Manager. Mr. Hemphill is a native of Whitley County and is now located here where his family resides. The President of the Company, Mr. Lovelace, is a native of Laurel County, who resides at Knoxville, Tenn.

The plant is located at the mouth of Laurel Branch on the North Fork of the Kentucky River near Hazard. There are installed two 150 H-P boilers, one unit for light and two units for heating, and to supply power for machinery, ect.; and other units will be added as needed to furnish motor power for mining purposes and other requirements. Mr. Hemphill will add to the plant an ice plant of large capacity, in order to ship ice in carload lots, and in smaller lots along the railroad, and for supplying local dealers in Hazard or anywhere convenient for shipments. Mr. Hemphill has been in the electrical business for over ten years, and is thorough and expert in the business, having had much practical experience. The citizens generally are patronizing the enterprise, and heat and light and power are furnished at most reasonable rates.

THE PERRY COUNTY STATE BANK

The Perry County State Bank was organized in the Spring of 1907; was chartered August 15, 1907, and opened for business October 1 following. J. E. Johnson who was chiefly instrumental in the organization was the first President with Andrew Shepherd, Vice-President, and L. F. Brashear, Cashier. The last two named have served the institution continuously since the first, but owing to the fact that Mr. Johnson changed his residence to Frankfort in 1909, it became necessary to elect a new one, and W. H. Miller was chosen President and is now serving the Bank in that capacity.

The Bank has had a somewhat eventful existence. It opened for business in a boxed building on the Eversole lot. Later the lot was bought by the bank and work was began upon a brick and stone fire-proof building. Before this was ready for occupancy, however, the box building was burned. The Bank's loss was small; chiefly consisting of damage to the vault which was sent to the factory and repaired. At noon the day after the fire, the Bank opened for business in a tent, on the site of the old building, and continued to do business at the old stand until the new building could be occupied, which was done November 18, 1911.

The Bank has a capitol of $15,000 and the institution has enjoyed a flourishing business from the start; the growth, not by leaps and bounds, but a slow and steady one. The financial institution is ably managed and now has assets of over $100,000-and is getting new business right along. The Cashier did all the work until Novemeber 1910, when it became necessary to have an assistant and we would not consider this sketch complete without mention of Miss Alpha Johnson the smiling bookkeeper who has been with the Bank since 1910, and she is now almost looked upon as "fixture."

HOTEL BEAUMONT

The new Hotel Beaumont occupies a conspicuius and commanding site on the corner of Main and Court Streets facing the west side of the new court house. It is substantially built of brick and stone, and is three stories with concrete basement for barber shop and bathrooms, and is fire-proof. It is well ventilated, and the rooms are light and spacious, and elegantly furnished. The office and dining room are most conveniently arranged. The Hotel Beaumont was erected by a skilled architect, and is the property of Mr. Austin Fields.

The building is heated by hot water system, and electric lighted. It is under the management of Mr. and Mrs. George Grigsby, and the table service is the best the market affords, while the rates are reasonable, $2 per diem for transients. Special attention is paid to commercial travelers and visiting tourists.

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK

In the first part of the year 1903 some of the more progressive citizens of Perry County under the leadership of Bailey P. Wootton put their heads and cash together and organized the first banking institution in this section of the State. This Bank was called the Hazard Bank and had for its first officers Jno. B. Cornett, President; J. E. Johnson, Vice-President; and Thos. A. Bowles, Cashier. The first Board of Directors were, B. P. Wootton, R. D. Davis, Jesse Morgan, S. B. Richie, M. C. Eversole and E. H. Cornett. During its three years history it earned for its stockholders $3,000.

In 1906 the Hazard Bank was converted into the First National Bank with a capitol stock of $25,000.00. The officers of the new Bank were C. G. Bowman, President; James Stacy, Vice-President, and Thos. A. Bowles, Cashier. The following constituted the Board of Directors; James Stacy, Wm. H. Cornett, C. G. Bowman, Thos. A. Bowles, Jesse Morgan, R. C. Napier, E. Kelley, B. P. Wootton, S. B. Richie, E. C. Duff, Jr., and R. O. Davis.

Since its organization The First National Bank of Hazard has paid to its stockholders an annual dividend of eight percent besides placing to the surplus, up until July, 1912, the sum of $9,000.00. It now has upon its books $5,000.00 in undivided profits. In other words the net total amount earned by this Bank for its stockholders since its organization to the present time is $26,000.00 - a record that few institutions of its kind can show.

This Bank has a splendid two-story fire-proof building situated on Main Street in one of the best locations of the city. One four different occasions it has stopped destructive fires which have burned their way up to it and then been checked by its brick walls. Extensive repairs have recently been made upon the banking room and now it is in every way modern, convenient and sightly.

HAZARD LUMBER COMPANY

The Hazard Lumber Company incorporated for $5,000 has a plant for sawing and planing mill, with three and one-half site, located in East Hazard, a short diatance above the River Bridge, which is running constaantly, largely supplying the local trade. T. S. Ward is the President: W. C. Combs, Secretary; C. G. Bowman, Treasurer, and H. C. Minnich, Manager. The mill will be enlarged to supply the growing demands and by patronizing home industry freight charges are saved. The mill is constantly in the market for logs. There are four employes about the mill besides the manager and this number is doubled at times.

C. C. COMBS RESTAURANT

Mr. C. C. (Charles Cecil) Combs, who has had a long experience in the catering business in the West and understands the art of good cooking, has a new restaurant 22 by 80 feet in the basement of the Johnson Building with new and modern fixtures where may be found everything good to eat, regular service or short order and he especially caters to the commercial travelers' trade. He has also engaged a chef from Atlanta, Georgia, an expert in the culinary line.

The restaurant is supplied with everything the market affords and the prices are reasonable. In connection is a soda fountain, fruits and confections, etc. In the adjoining room there is a pool room conducted most orderly.

Mrs. Combs who is an excellent cook was Miss Grace Austin of Keiffer, Okla., and they have one fine daughter two months old named Helen. Mr. Combs had a long western experience but he is a native of Perry County.

PART 4

HAZARD DRUG COMPANY

Mr. Benjamin G. Nofsinger who is President and Manager of the Hazard Drug Company, has had wide experience in the business. He was engaged for twenty years as a druggist and pharmacist, at Calhoun, Ky., and then he traveled as a drug salesman for a Louisville firm for six years, covering this territory, when he decided to again locate at a suitable place, and wisely chose Hazard two years ago.

Recently the stock of drugs was removed into the handsome new store room in the Wootton & Morgan Building, where he installed new and elegant fixtures, and one of the best equipped and up-to-date soda fountains anywhere to be found. Mr. Nofsinger then engaged Mr. E. N. Freeman of Lexington to look after this luxury that has become a necessity.

He is a thorough expert in the line of mixing healthy and pure soft drinks and mineral waters, and this attractive fixture makes the drug store one of the handsomest to be found anywhere. Mr. Nofsinger is also assisted by his daughters Misses Flora, Ruth and Louise. Mr. Nofsinger is a native of McLean County, and Mrs. Nofsinger was Flora Jones of Calhoun, McLean County. They also have two ther sons and one daughter, all married, and living in Louisville.

Mr. Nofsinger has recently re-stocked the storeroom with pure drugs, chemicals, druggists' sundries, notions and toilet articles, and prescriptions are carefully compounded.

A RETARDING DEMON TO PROGRESS

Many times I have heard of freight rate discriminations, but I had too busy to investigate, and I thought it the duty of the Hazard Board of Trade or the Merchants' Protective Association, to carry on the investigation themselves, or that it was the duty of the local newspaper to do so.

The L. & N. R. R. has always been kind and courteous to me, as had the L. & E. and the L. & A., all now the L. & N. granting me transportation. My only reason for mentioning it now is that I find that the extortion, in violation of th law, is mentioned by Lexington shippers, and I lost business thereby.

I will give one example: Mr. Ross C. Adams, sculptor and monument manufacturer, said that he had shipped a monument to Hazard, and that the freight rate was 44 cents a hundred! This for less than a hundred and fifty miles. Mr. Adams said that the exhorbitant rate was over double the rate he paid from Vermont for marble.

This hundred miles of road has cost more to build than any road built anywhere within the past two decades, and it is the finest built road in America. It cost millions of dollars, and then the destroying floods of last March added heavy damages. But the L. & N. R. R. is a rich corporation, wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, and it ought to be beyond freight discriminations; it ought to be just.

I have never received courtesies with the idea that they were in any sense bribes, and I think it is the duty of the Lexington Commercial Club to take the initiative in investigating these charges, and that speedily. Turn on the light; ventilate the case.

A SINGULAR THING

It strikes one , at first blush, as singular, so to speak that the little town of Whitesburg, Ky., has a fine furniture establishment, and Hazard, Ky., forty miles nearer to the wholesale marts, has none save one second-hand store, and the queer thing is thus explained: Before the advent of the railroad, Whitesburg hauled its furniture twenty miles over a good (?) mountain road from the L. & N. R. R. at Stonega, Va., and it would have necessary for Hazard to get furniture, if by rail via Jackson, and haul it forty miles over a mountain road the worst ever, or have furniture shipped only as far as Athol, to catch a tide in the river, and haul it up drawn by mules, a la canal. Sometimes during the spring freshets a gasoline boat made the "voyage" with passengers.

Despite the fact that the railroad has been running trains into Hazard for a year and there are many representative mercantile establishments with big stocks, still there is no furniture dealer or regular undertaker or embalmer and Winchester undertakers are burying the dead at Jackson and Hazard and the Winchester florists furnishing the flowers.

HAZARD TOWN OFFICIALS

Hazard is a fifth class town and has sufficient population to be in the fourth class as it doubtless will be when the next Legislature convenes. The town has a capable and progressive Board of Trustees.

Police Judge, J. D. Combs
City Attorney, D. B. Sallee
City Marshal, R. C. Combs
Assessor, Hiram Wooton
City Clerk, Lewis Feltner

Courts are at present held in the furniture store room of Judge Combs.

JUDGE J. G. Campbell

The present judge of Perry County is J. G. Campbell, a representative descendant of the Scotch Highlander clans, his ancestry having been among the first settlers in Perry County, they having emigrated here from North Carolina before the county was formed in 1820, and Judge Campbell now resides on the original farm owned by his ancestors, besides having a residence in Hazard.

Judge Campbell received a common school education and taught school for several terms, and being studious and well read, is an educated man without college training. He served as a magistrate for several terms, and was regarded as one of the most careful and earnest members of the Fiscal Court, always studying the best interests of the people and taxpayers.

Judge Campbell served as chairman of the School Board of Trustees in District No. 9 in Perry County in the year 1891 and 1892 and caused to be built against much opposition, and by Local or District taxation, at an expense of about $800 the first substantial school house ever erected in Perry County. The house is a frame building and stands in a good state of preservation yet.

Judge Campbell served part of a term as Sheriff by appointment. While engaging in farming and stock raising extensively and successfully, Judge Campbell also engaged in the timber business, and was making a fine sum annually, when he was induced to make the race for County Judge, and he is now serving his first term, at the small salary, of $700 a year. To win this election, Judge Campbell says it cost him six months' canvassing and over $800 in legitimate campaign expenses, besides the loss of salary in the timber business.

Since being inducted into office he has paid off and discharged all outstanding indebtedness against the County, amounting to several thousand dollars; compromised and paid off for $1,000 a suit which was pending in the Court of Appeals, for $2,000; Built the first bridge ever built in Perry County. He built the new $38,000 court house with the Fiscal Court, and secured such a favorable contract that the architect and builder said that he regretted that he hadn't taken the contract at 5 per cent on contract price.

A bond issue was defeated by seven votes of two thirds of all voters voting, and to obviate this difficulty the Fiscal Court issued interest-bearing warrants.

The contractor placed the warrants with various banks in different states. Already nearly $8,000 of the court house indebtedness has been wiped out. Only recently a committee from Bracken County composed of County Judge Gibson and other citizens inspected the court house and so well were pleased that they took a copy of the contract and expect to duplicate the building.

During Judge Campbell's incumbency the Lexington & Eastern Extension of the Railroad has been built and none were more active than he in securing the right-of-way, and he effected the most favorable settlement out of the Company for damages to the county roads, without any costs of suits, something like $1500 a mile for seven and one-half miles, enough to build better roads on the opposite side of the North Fork of the Kentucky River.

It is a singular fact that Perry County has never in her history endorsed a county judge for a second term. Judge Campbell is a candidate who will doubtless break that precedent against a field of announced opponents eight in number. One man served two terms, but not consecutively. Judge says the more opponents he has the easier it will be for him to win the nomination and election. His administration is free from criticism and mud slinging, and the opposition is more for the desire for office.

Judge Campbell's desire to succeed himself is because of his anxiety to put through other necessary steps in progress, the building of a new jail to replace the old and unsanitary and unsightly building now so prominent as to disfigure the beautiful court house and the building of many bridges over the river and creeks for county roads, and the general improvement of them, and many other necessary improvements for the public good; and it is the general concensus of opinion that he is, by far, the best qualified man in the county to intrust with the office.

Judge Campbell was born in Perry County in the house where he now lives January 21, 1859. In 1880 he was married to Miss Sallie Napier and she died in 1887; his second marriage was in 1888 to Miss Pollie Campbell. One son, E. L. Campbell, a merchant at Grapevine; two sons and four daughters at home; three daughters married, Mrs. Robt. Wooton, Mrs. R. H. Holliday and Mrs. Tolbert Holliday. He is a perfect physical specimen of mountain manhood, young and strong physically and mentally, sanguine in temperament, pleasing and affable and approachable in manner, and exceedingly popular; a man of faultless life and lofty character. Such types of men cannot be honored too highly by good citizens, and their tribe ought to increase.

D-Y, D-Y, D-Y

As one alights from the train at Hazard and gallant Captain Bocook the conductor waves and adieu with a smile thrown in for usary, the first word heard above the bustle and din is D-Y, D-Y, D-Y, and that stands for the most popular, best known and most infuential and wealthiest and most progressive man in Hazard or Perry County or perhaps Eastern Kentucky; it stands for David Yancey Combs, prince of landlords, liverymen, big general merchant, real estate dealer, land owner and coal mine operator and then some. All day long and sometimes "All Night Long" D-Y, D-Y, D-Y, is iterated and reiterated, for everybody including the children know and like D. Y. Combs whose popularity would put him into Congress if he'd say the word.

So busy is he and so engaged in conversation with here and there little coteries that I found it difficult to get a line on him for a little sketch and it was only after I found his aid de camp, Hon. Andrew Jackson Conyers that I found some data for this brief biography of a man so prominent and so careless of the fame I have to thrust upon him.

David Yancey Combs was born - of course - had to be born somewhere - fifty years ago at the mouth of Carr's Fork of the famous Combs lineage - was born a democrat, and despite the fact that Perry County is overwhelmingly Republican, D. Y. was twice elected Sheriff and by saving grace of his Rebeliaisian humor preserved the best of order, but he cared nothing for official life and today all of his great love is centered in a little midget - Little Mary his granddaughter, aged about three, while Mrs. Combs or "Ma" as even the boarders call her fondly divides her affection between Little Mary and Beryl, aged about five years; the boy, and in him is the abridgment of all that is pleasant in man to quote from Thos. Hood.

D. Y. is a money maker; possesses the Midas touch and there is not a corpuscle of the miserly in his twoo hundred pounds of superb mountain manhood, but upon the contrary he is the soul of generosity and hides his charity while dispensing it in many ways, not letting his left "fist" know what his fine right hand doeth.

For many years having been extensively engaged in lumber and timeber and logging he became known far and wide and when D. Y. drops into Lexington or Louisville he can't transact any business till the glad hand and the jest and the "news" and little social amenities are rushed through.

While D. Y. is all we have mentioned he is prouder of his farming operations than all else and he raises stock of all kinds, and b'gosh he loves a hoss.

Having leased his fields of the best coal to large coal operators it is believed that everybody's D. Y. is destined to be in the near future one of the richest men in these rich fields, but nobody believes that he will dress in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day, for D. Y. doesn't care a snap for all that sort of thing, being as plain and simple as the proverbial old shoe.

Six feet, commanding, active, filled with health, and everyone at once becomes en rapport with him. Dark and tanned and swarthy, with shining jowls and merry dark eyes sparkling, a voice winning in strength and music, dark hair close cropped, clean shaven, with here a jest there a bow to some of the seclusive set, then a magnetic touch of his index finger under the dimpled chin of a blushing or laughing sweet sixteen, this man of magnetism makes his rounds scattering joy and fun and sunshine. In moments of repose there is an interesting touch or suggestion of melancholy; a momentary reminiscense or a faint adumbration that D. Y. might carry his burden too, but he does it debonairly and masterfully.

Once in a conversation when he was off his guard and didn't know that I was a newspaper man he said that a new enterprise which I had mentioned, he was not asked to take stock and to my surprise he said rather low: "I've got a little bunch of enemies" I was astonished and now that I know him still better it causes me not only surprise but wonder. What boots it a little bunch of enemies when compared to the friendship of children?

PART 5

REBEL MARTIN

A new and young attorney of Hazard, who is already getting practice, is Rebel Martin, who has offices in the Perry County State Bank Building. Mr. Martin is a native of Floyd County, where he was born July 25, 1887, and in 1890 his parents moved to Knott County, where his father, Mr. John D. Martin, engaged in the mercantile business, and where he has engaged ever since.

He was elected Page of the House of Representatives, in the 1904 session of the Legislature, clockroom keeper in 1906, and bill clerk in 1908, and was educated at Transylvania University, had an experience as a teacher in Knott County, and graduated in the law department of State University. Mr. Martin is single and is considered one of the most promising members of the able Perry County Bar.

LEE DANIEL

By far the most popular county official in Perry County is Lee Daniel, the present efficient Circuit Court Clerk, and his son and Deputy, Dewey, aged sixteen, already an expert typist and copyist. The most popular resort in the court house is his office where with the assistance of two other stenographers, Messers Cornett and Ward, business is dispatched quick as thought, and then there is fun and recreation a-plenty, you bet. Here the Hazard Brass Band "practices" when it is possible to blow up, or bugle up, or drum up a quorum. Here the checker board is always surrounded, and here the vault is sometimes converted into a "clock room."

Lee Daniel has two more years to serve, when he will get another term dead easy if Providence doesn't interfere, and then at the end of his term, Dewey will tire of his boxing gloves and base ball mitts, and will run himself, and force "Dad" to go out for something bigger, or Dewey will retire Lee to the shades of private life or make him Deputy. Of course we are jesting, but sometimes in the whirligig of time one can't always tell. Lee is serving his second term now, having been in office ten years.

Lee Daniel is the son of Dr. John M. Daniel, and Minerva Daniel. He lost his mother at the age of two years, and lost his father at the age of ten years, and hence Lee ahd to be "farmed" out, and fell into the splendid hands of an honored citizen, John Baker, who tried his level best to make a man out of Lee, and some people think he succeeded, the author among them. After he happily succeeded in winning Miss Susan Isom, the excellent daughter of "Jonah" Isom, Lee had smooth sailing. They were married in 1890 and besides Dewey, four other children bless their happy home.

Lee Daniel is an enthusiastic fraternity man, and the K. of P. Lodge recently organized in his offices, where they meet for the present till a hall is completed. Lee Daniel was born in Hazard, April 23, 1870, and he is the genial and suave and gentlemanly official it is our pleasure to meet, and he and Dewey and Arch Cornett, stenographic Deputy, have my thanks for favors, courtesies and assistance, and at one time for something else, but let that pass as A. Ward remarked.

SHERIFF FRANK HORN

One of the most interesting officials to meet in Perry County, is the Sheriff, Frank Horn, who is about winding up his first term as civil office holder, but who had served for over eight years as Deputy United States Marshall. Sheriff Horn was born near Pineville, Bell County, March 6, 1878, and came to Perry County in 1899. He enlisted in the Fourth Kentucky Regiment but had no service worth relating as he was soon mustered out. He was educated in the common schools, and so eager was he to learn that he afterward made a good school teacher. Mr. Horn married Miss Lizzie Cornett and has one son named Max, aged eighteen months. His father Montgomery Horn is a man of education, and is his active office deputy, and is now a candidate for County Judge.

Frank Horn like his father is a fine physical specimen of Highlander manhood, six feet two inches and weighs 240 pounds, finely proportioned but he is heavier than when he was in active service afoot in the revenue service, when he would beat any horse traversing the mountains running down moonshiners, often walking from Jackson to Hazard in a day; or when he would strike out and "step" over to Leslie County in quicker time than any horseman. It is a remarkable fact, that in all his service, he never had any serious trouble.

After arrests of violators of laws, he generally put them on their honor and turned them loose to appear in court, and nobody ever abused the confidence he reposed in them. Mr. Horn generally goes unarmed in his work, and during the building of the forty miles of railroad through Perry County he handled these great bodies of men as if by hypnotic power and kept or restored order by his magnetic presence. Mr. Horn states that during his term of offic e in conveying prisoners to Frankfort that he has rarely ever resorted to handcuffs, even for men convicted and sentenced for long terms and that he never lost a prisoner.

Mr. Horn has an alert mind and a active body, rapid in movement and a fluent and rapid conversationalist, of more than ordinary education. He is youthful in appearance and pleasing in manner and is popular with all classes. When his term of office expires he will turn to a business career and at which he will certainly be successful. Too few men, however, of his type are in the political field, and he may yet receive higher awards at the hands of his many friends, is the concensus of opinion. He is the present Chairman of the Republican party of Perry County. Gentle and winning in his personality, he is also a man of undoubted courage in the right. Mr. Horn is euthusiastic for the upbuilding of Hazard and he has an abiding faith in its future growth and prosperity.

"DAD" RICHARDS

D. J. Richards, or better known as "Daddy" is a new, oldcomer to Perry County. He was first introduced to the people as the "Rambler," this being the name used by him in a series of articles published in the Hazard Herald. He was born in Pennsylvania, came to Tennessee in 1868 as one of a Welsh colony that settled in Knoxville. His father was an iron and coal man. Mr. Richards took up the work of bookkeeping after leaving the rolling mills, and having a talent in that line took up special accounting which business he has kept up to the present time. During part of his life, the early part, he worked as a reporter and continues to write for the various papers.

Since being here he has furnished the greater part of the items that have appeared in the Hazard Herald. He came to this section to audit the books of the Jones-Davis Company and when this was completed decided to remain here and be one of the Perry County boosters. "Daddy" ia all right as everyone will testify. Hi s boys and girls, eight in number, are married or able to take care of themselves. His wife lives in Tennessee, not caring to sever old ties. "Daddy" is sixty-three years young.

WOOTTON, MORGAN, & WOOTON

The Perry County Bar takes high rank and compares favorably with the legal fraternity of any community of its size and numbers. There are thirty lawyers practicing here and one woman attorney, a Mrs. Marsh of New York. Land titles and the general development, rather than criminal practice, accounts for the large number of lawyers. One of the leadinf firms her is Wootton, Morgan & Wooton, who have spacious offices in their own building. The firn is composed of Bailey Wootton and Jesse Morgan and Elijah C. Wooton. The first named is one of the moving spirits of Hazard in material, educational and moral development, and his name is connected with a dozen different enterprises.

Mr. Wootton is a director in the First National Bank, owns the Hazard Herald newspaper and job printing office, which he installed nearly two years ago, putting the newspaper in competent hands, the paper being independent and progressive, with no private axes to grind, and hence it wields a wide influence, and from the start took high rank in mountain journalism.

Mr. Wootton is an official of the Hazard Bridge Company; is interested in the Water Works and is owner of real estate and town lots besides other interests. His firm is attorney for the L. & N. Railroad, Consolidated Coal Co., B. & O. R. R. Co., ect., and legal advisers in land and mining interests. The important collection department is in the capable hands of Elijah C. Wooton.

Bailey P. Wootton was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky on a farm in 1870 and in his early manhood taught school for ten years; taught school and edited a newspaper in Paducah, Texas, in 1891-3, when he came to Perry County, where he was a teacher in the Hazard Normal School for four years. He was admitted to the bar in 1897, and then attended the Southern University at Huntington, Tenn. Earlier graduated from Lebanon University at Lebanon, Ohio, Mr. Wootton gives credit for whatever of business acumen he may possess, to a course in a business college at Keokuk, Iowa. He points with pride to his connection with the Perry County High School of which he is a trustee.

Mr. Wootton married Miss Rebecca Boggs of Perry County and they have one son, Thomas, aged nine years. Mr. Wootton is pleasing in address, plain and simple and direct in manner, and is personally popular, having a little dry vein of the saving grace of humor in his composition, and nobody envies him his success. He has never aspired to political office, but has been Chairman of the Democratic party for ten years and it is believed that if he once entered the field, higher honors await him.

Mr. Morgan was born in Perry County; also has an experience as a teacher of the young idea how to shoot and hit the mark (metaphorically speaking) and he also had an early desire to wander from his native heath, and after three years spent profitably in growing oranges in "the glorious climate of California," he returned and settled here for "keeps." Mrs. Morgan was Miss Sallie Ison of Leatherwood, and they have one daughter, Maud aged eight years. He was admitted to the bar in 1899 and is able to hold own in forensic and legal combat.

The third member of the firm is Mr. Elijah C. Wooton who was born in Perry County on Troublesome Creek, in 1876, and like many another mountain lawyer taught school for several years. He was admitted to the bar in 1900. Mrs. Wooton was Miss Alice Noe of Springfield, Ky., and they are blessed with a year-old son. All of the members of this firm reside in Hazard.

There is another "member" of the firm that sentiment and gallantry impels me not to overlook; not on your life; a brave and intrepid and pretty little stenographer from Bowling Green, Ky., Miss Carolyn Adams, here to stay and de-lighted and yet so dense is ignorance and misinformation even at Lexington that not infrequently I have Big (?) fellows down in the Bluegrass to say to me: "Pilcher aren't you afraid to go up there and write about these desperate mountaineers?"

LAWYERS

Roster of the Perry County Bar Association, for which lack of space forbids individual mention, and noted in their different lines, some of them graduates from some of the most learned colleges in Virginia and Kentucky:

Miller & Wheeler, Hogg & Johnson, A. J. Conyers, Ira J. Combs, Ira Fields, James B. Hoge, J. B. Eversole, Rebel Martin, Buford C. Tynes, J. K. P. Turner, J. G. Begley, D. B. Sallee, H. C. Davidson, J. G. Combs, Albert Williams, John Ward, Sam Ward, W. C. Eversole, F. J. Eversole, R. F. Fields, C. W. Napier, C. M. Horn, J. C. Hockett Jr., John Baker, and Mrs. Marsh from New York.

DOCTORS

The preponderance of lawyers over doctors is a tribute to the health-giving powers of these mountains, for sick people don't litigate, but healthy live ones. Here is a complete list of the disciples of Ghalon, all heroic dosers: J. C. Sumner, C. A. Eversole, M. Combs, _______ Gross, Taylor Hurst, Sam Richie, Cecil Young.

DENTISTS

Dentistry is always identified with the literati and that is one reason that I like to visit them and get some out-of-date magazines that I couldn't find on the news stands: Henry Maggard, C. E. Sloan.

PART 6

G. B. EVERSOLE & CO.

This new establishment for Hazard in dry goods, notions and furnishings, has recently opened up, in the large and commodious store room of the Wootton & Morgan Building, one of the completest and most attractive stores in Hazard, which presents a city appearance. The building is directly opposite the court house, where everything worn by men, women and children may be found well and carefully selected from the best marts of trade in Chicago, New York, and other markets and some imported fashions in millinery is here displayed.

Mr. G. B. Eversole, the head of the firm, is a native of London, Laurel County, where he was born January 25, 1882, and after receiving a good school and business education, he traveled successfully for ten years, in dry goods, for Cincinnati and Louisville firms, and his acquisition to the mercantile line here, is an important one. Mr. Eversole considers that he has selected the best on the new railroad map to settle and establish a successful business, and he expresses himself that he couldn't find a more favorable place to live anywhere in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. The business is already increasing day by day as the Spring and Summer season opens, and as he is most enterprising, and a strong adherent to the use of printers' ink, he hopes to induce many new customers to do their trading in Hazard.

Mr. J. C. Eversole, his younger brother, who is also associated with the firm, is also a native of London and was born March 14, 1890, and is just reaching his majority; and it is believed that he has done well to choose a mercantile career, and especially, as he is associated with his more experienced brother. He has had some experience in merchandising and was on the road as a commercial traveler for some time. Both brothers are polite and efficient and popular.

MORRISON & PECK

Morrison & Peck are civil and mining engineers, successors to Morrison Brothers and they have offices in the Johnson Building. Mr. J. L. Morrison, a native of Lexington, Va., came here two years ago from Bluefield, W. Va., and Mr. D. K. Peck is from Bluefield, W. Va., and he recently located here where he will remove hos family. Mr. Morrison is single. Mr. Morrison is connected with a number of local enterprises, The Hazard Water Company, Hazard Hardware Company, Hazard Pharmacy and he has recently organized a Plumbing and Supply Company, Messrs. D. K. Peck and R. A. Hoffman being interested in the new enterprise which will be incorporated.

The civil and mining engineering department does mining engineering and all colliery development and coal and timber lands inspected and reported. Railroad engineering locating and construction and land surveying.

R. C. BAKER

Mr. R. C. Baker is the present Jailer of Perry County, and is a candidate for the renomination on the Republician ticket. Mr. Baker has made a faithful official, and in spite of the old jail with which he has had to contend, he has done his best to keep it in sanitary condition, and his treatment of the prisoners has been humane, looking after their health and keeping them in the best condition possible for such an out-of-date structure; and as he has had a siege with it for four years, and now it appears that a new building will soon replace it, he has a desire to continue in office for another term as an endorsement of his official conduct.

Mr. Baker was nominated over strong opposition and defeated his leading opponent by about three hundred votes, and his friends say he is stronger today than ever. During his incumbency he has never had any serious trouble with his inmates, and none of them have escaped. Mr. Baker was born on Middlefork, at Buckhorn, in Perry County

, October 18, 1874, and he was married to Miss Annie Combs of Macey's Creek, and they have four sons and one daughter. Mr Baker has for years conducted the Baker Hotel, and recently he built a brick and stone building, near the beaumont Hotel, where he runs an up-to-date restaurant with his assistants. At present there are only ten prisioners in his charge, mostly for minor offenses.

DANIEL BOONE SALLEE, THE UNIQUE

I discovered in Hazard a local Count Leo Tolstoi, in Daniel Boone Sallee, all things by turn and excellently, upsetting the theory of the jack of all trades and good at none. D. B. Salle I found discharging the duties of Town Attorney, first, next I found him conducting a barbaer shop, where he gave me several choice extracts from his speeches. He is also a blacksmith and watch repairer. He is also an ordained Elder in the Christian Church, and preaches and "holds forth" on short notice as he speaks by inspiration (?) only.

He was born in Letcher County, October 12, 1864, and has lived in Hazard for thirty years. He is married, and has five living sons and daughters. He is also Circuit Court Examiner. At one time he was deputy U. S. Marshal. He once taught school in Wolfe County, and also Perry County. He also farms some. This unique and distinguished personage, doesn't perform manual and menial labor through pride or vanity or egotism as it was charged of the great Rus sian Reformer, but he likes to be kept busy and he said that he had heard of Tolstoi. He is a mild mannered man, with a soft voice, at whom people are wont to smile.

I found his style a little florid and flowery and his law speeches mixed with theology; a sort of medley that left me puzzled as to whether he was better barber than cobbler, and I gave up. I didn't find out whether he was a "good" barber, or not, and hence can't recommend him. The Honorable Mr. Sallee told me that he would be a candidate for County Attorney at the Primary.

Daniel Boone (Ben) Sallee doesn't seem to see the uncongruous in his many vocations and avocations, and indeed all of his callings are honest ones, especially his barbering, his blacksmithing, his clock fixing, his cobbling!

J. H. CONYERS

J. H. Conyers, bookkeeper and confidential man for D. Y. Combs, is one of the most interesting men you will meet at the office and table of the "D. Y." Combs Hotel, a pleasing and agreeable and interesting gentleman and scholar of the old school and his home is at Glasgow, Ky. He has had a long and honorable official career, in the Legislature, in the Internal Revenue Service and for twelve years was U. S. Commissioner; chairman of Republican County Committee for three different counties in all fourteen years and is well known as a campaign orator all over the Third and Fourth Districts of Kentucky.

A slight failure in health caused him to seek to regain it in this bracing and salubrious mountain air which has greatly benefited him. Mr. Conyers is the most interesting literary man with whom I conversed; not scholarly, but well read, with a retentive memory for apt quotations from the classics, and, especially Burns and Byron and the "great barbarian" Shakespeare.

Here is his 'biograph" in brief: Born in Hart County, Kentucky, August 30, 1867, the first born of three children; others dead. He was educated at Suphur Well Collegiate Institute and Horse Cave Normal School. He represented the counties of Metcalf and Monroe in the 1894 session of the Legislature, and while in Frankfort was examined by the Court of Appeals and admitted to the bar and practiced with success for fourteen years when he was a Special Employee of the Internal Revenue Service. In November, 1911, he came to Hazard for a change of climate expecting to remain only a few months. Now that his health is regained he will again practice law and join the Hazard bar.

GEORGE W. HUMPHRIES

Mr Geo. W. Humphries, the Vice-President of the Herald Publishing Company, and who was formerly the publisher of the Mountaineer, is a dapper little Georgia gentleman and a bachelor, very fond of children. When he "knocks" off at the printers' case they flock about him and listen to his stories, and incidentally separate "Mr. George" from his "Chicken feed." He was formerly a compositor on the Atlanta Constitution, and hence he is a good "print," which in a measure accounts for the attractive appearance of the Herald. George seems a fixture and appears to be wedded to the Herald and it is about time he was wedded to one of these mountain beauties. He is lively and boyish in his demeanor and is the Director of the Hazard Brass Band, and when not "leading" on the cornet, plays the snare drum.

C. W. NAPIER

Mr. C. W. Napier, the County Attorney of Perry County, is one of the most popular officials in the new court house. He will not, however, be a candidate for the re-nomination, and it is the impression that his friends and adherents will call him "higher up" to a district office, probably, for Prosecuting Attorney, of this the thirty-third Judicial District, and if so, his nomination and election is safely predicted. Mr Napier's ancestors came from Virginia and North Carolina, and while the name is French, he confesses to being of Scotch-Irish extraction.

Mr. Napier was born in Perry County, February 26, 1881, and is a clannish Kentuckian who never tires of singing its praises, and especially that of the Highlands where nature's blessings are richest, and clamitous events are absent, and manhood and womanhood are noblest. Me. Napier was educated in the common schools and attended the Eastern Kentucky Normal School and graduated at law at Bowling Green, Ky., and was admitted to practice there. Later he practiced two years at Salyersville, and then permanently located in Hazard, as the coming town of the mountains, of which his faith is grounded on facts in evidence on every hand. In his first race for the nomination he defeated his leading opponent by over two hundred votes, and carried the election by over seven hundred.

Mr. Napier is happily married to Miss Addie Combs, of Smithsborough, Knott County, Ky., and is very proud of one son, C. W. Jr., aged five months. Mr. Napier is interested in other local enterprises, and is active in the financial, educational and moral upbuilding of Hazard, and Perry County, while being loyal to all the vast area embraced in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

Mr. Napier is an able lawyer, an earnest and conscientious prosecutor, cautious but fearless in the discharge of his sworn duty, but never descends into persecution, and never prosecutes for the sake of building up a meretricious reputation for numbers in convictions. Mr. Napier is pleasing and affable in address, and leaves one with a most favorable impression of his personality and individuality.

JOHNSON & JONES SAW AND PLANING MILL

Mr. S. A. D. Jones has recently purchased an interest in the saw and planing mill of Johnson & Johnson, situated near the L.& N. Railroad depot. He is the son-in-law of Mr. J. L. Johnson, and the capacity of the mill is expected to be enlarged and improved. The mill was established in 1897 and is doing a large local business, not only here, but in shipping and to other points nearby. The trade locally is enabled to buy at home and thus gain a heavy freight rates. The plant and yards are located on Messrs. Branch near the river, only a short distance from the railroad.

HON. IRA FIELDS

Hon. Ira Fields, who maintains law offices in Whitesburg and Hazard, is a native of Letcher County, and is a fine representative of the large and influential Fields family of Eastern Kentucky. After holding county offices in Letcher, such as Justice of the Peace and County Attorney, he was elected to the Prosecuting Attorneyship of this the Twenty-third Judicial District, transferring his residence to the Twenty-third District, which, in its creation, cut out his native county, and hence, he settled in Perry County, at Hazard. He was again re-elected to the office.

Mr. Fields still possesses a lively interest in Whitesburg, where he has investments, and he put up a three-story building, to be used for hotel and offices, and he spends much of his time there. Mr. Fields is yet in the prime of manhood, having been born February 3, 1863. By great diligence he managed to preempt the rudiments of a common school education and his ambition caused him to attend the Center College Law Department at Danville, where he graduated. After declining to be a candidate for re-election as County Attorney of Letcher, he actively engaged in the practice throughout Eastern Kentucky. He is a citizen of business and progressive ideas, and a man of strong mentality, coupled with moral fiber, who has been content with the office he has mastered when higher honors tempted.

THE HAZARD PHARMACY

The Hazard Pharmacy, is now in new quarters, occupying the large and spacious store room in the Beaumont Hotel Building, with elegant fixtures, complete in every detail, with prescription cases and soda fountain of the latest pattern and costing over $2,000. The store had been recently re-stocked with pure drugs, chemicals, sundries, notions, toilet articles, periodicals, cigars, ect. Prescriptions are carefully compunded day or night.

The Company was organized and incorporated in August, 1912. The Pharmacist, Mr. C. T. Williams, who is Treasurer and Manager, is an original Perry County man, having been born at Yerkes, and he is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky State Normal School in the Literary Department in 1910, and graduated in Pharmacy at the Valparaiso, Ind., University, in May of 1912. The Company is composed of Dr. E. Kelly, President; J. L. Morrison, Vice-President; Miss Bertha Little, Secretary; and other stock holders. The volume of business has been steadily increasing.

The new clerk in the Hazard Pharmacy is Mr. Bradley Stacy who is a promising and efficient asststant to Mr. Williams, and he was born at Sassafras Postoffice, in 1895. He received his early training in the common schools; thence Hazard Baptist Institute; attended school at Williamsburg; then State Normal at Richmond, when he took a business course at Smith's College at lexington. Mr. Stacy is a fine penman and accountant and improves his idle time in reading up on Pharmacy, with a view to a regular course later. Bradley is not married - Yet.

[Note: William Bradley Stacy was born 6 February, 1895 at Sassafras, Ky, s/o Jonathan Stacy and Sally Combs. Bradley did marry soon after this book was published; marrying Alma Fields on 26 March 1914 at Hazard. Bradley and Alma had a daughter, Marbeth, on 5 January 1915. Tragically, Bradley's promising life and career ended on 6 November, 1916 when he died of Typhoid fever at age 21 years. Freddie]

M. E. CHURCH PASTOR

Dr. Brown of the M. E. Church, Hazard, is building up a strong congregation and he wields a wide influence for good in religion, morals and education. Dr. Brown is an earnest worker in the vineyard of the Lord and he is said to be a gifted pulpit orator learned in theology and scholarly in history and literature.

PART 7

WM. W. OLIVER

Was born in Perry County, Ky., December 3, 1875. His ancestors came over with the French in the time of the Revolution and afterward settled in North Carolina, whence a number at a later day emigrated to Kentucky and Tennessee. He attended the public schools of Perry County, The Hazard Normal School, and The National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio. His ambition was the profession of Law but a misfortune in early manhood threw him off his course and as a result he spent fourteen years of his life teaching in the public schools of Perry County, The Hazard Baptist Institute and The Leslie Graded School of Leslie, Ark. His occupation for the last fifteen months has been that of soliciting agent for the New York Life Insurance Company.

BERKOWITZ BROS.

In 1896 Leon and Morris Berkowitz, brothers, arrived in New York from Roumania and after a time spent in that city, Leon went direct to Pineville where he engaged in dry goods, clothing, ect., successfully; his brother Morris soon joining him. Two years ago they wisely concluded that Hazard was the coming town of the mountains and since then they have been setting the pace as live advertisers; and by selling good goods at low prices they have built up a properous and extensive business for the Baltimore Store as it is named and which is located in the Johnson Building opposite the Perry County new court house, a most attractive store, with large and tastefully trimmed show windows, with hats, shoes, clothing and notions marked in plain figures.

They also handle other lines including millinery, ect. The firm is one of the leading advertisers and they have prospered by it and by their fair and enterprising methods of conducting the business. Since coming here in September 1912, they have made The Baltimore Store a household word in Perry and other counties. By their live advertising and wide-awake business plans, and high order of business principles, they have induced many country people to come from a distance to trade here.

JOHN McINTOSH

Mr. John McIntosh is the present excellent County Superintendent of Schools in Perry County with convenient offices in the court house on the first floor, and he and his family reside in Hazard. Mr. McIntosh is a candidate for the re-nomination on the Republican ticket, and it is not believed that he will by given any strong opposition, as the people generally, and the teachers are favorably inclined to give him an endorsement.

Mr. McIntosh was born in Owsley County in 1877 and his parents removed to Perry County when he was but two years old. He was educated in Perry County and at Berea College, and he has been a teacher for fourteen years; two years in Jackson County. Mrs. McIntosh was Miss Ida Sandifer and they have two daughters and one son. Mr. McIntosh at one time resided at Yerkes and he is a member of the Christian Church, which denomination is just organizing there.

Mr. McIntosh is a hard worker in the cause of education and the common schools are now flourishing, being supplied with efficient teachers.

REV. ALLEN JONES JR.

The pastor of the Presbyterian Church, who has been here for several months preaching the second anf fourth Sundays in each month, was born in Sanford, N. C., in 1866. A manse is being built, and later Mrs. Jones will loin her husband here. The membership is increasing, and the Sunday School is increasing in attendance.

R. O. DAVIS

[Note: This is Rufus Oren Davis, s/o Willian O. Davis and Celia Cornett. R.O. married 1st, Blanch (unknown maiden) about 1896 and they had two children; Lawrence and Marie Davis. R.O. married 2nd, Lillie E. Strong in 1904 and they had three children; Leon Norwood, Wallace and Margaret "Maggie" Davis. Freddie]

K. K. DAVIS

Mr. K. K. Davis has recently erected a two-story presses brick storeroom now being occupoed by Mr. L. E. Petrey in closing out a remnant of a stock of dry goods damaged in a recent fire.

[Note: This is Karl K. Davis, s/o William O. Davis and Celia Cornett. K.K. married Sarah "Sally" Campbell on Christmas Eve 1907 and they had three children; Roscoe, William O. "Bill" and Cynthia. Freddie]

FOX, PECK & PURSIFULL

This trio of civil engineers and surveyors take a high rank in Kentucky and Virginia in their profession. They have offices in the Perry County State Bank Building, and a suite of rooms in the Wootton & Morgan Building. All three are said to be expert draughtsmen, Mr. Pursifull being especially skilled as a penman and artist, his maps resembling copper plates. This triangle of busy experts are all three members of the F. F. V's,-excuse me- Pursifull was born in Bell County, Ky., and Mr. Peck is a relative, I think a brother, of the other firm of Morrison & Peck, of Hazard, also civil engineers, in the Wootton & Morgan Building.

Mr. Fox is a brother of the celebrated novelist and romanticist of the Kentucky Mountains, John Fox, master par excellence, of mountain dialects and mountain ways, customs, habits; of mountain men and mountain women and mountain children, whom I have known personally, and whom I account my literary friend, guide and preceptor; who wouldn't hesitate to be my philosopher and friend to the extent of lending me his meal ticket if he caught me in a "pinch" in New York, which protoplasm forbid!

Mr. Pursifull is an Apollo Bevidere, six feet in his home-knit yarn socks, resourceful, popular and single. He is a brother of Dr. Paschal Young Pursifull, druggist, medical doctor of the old reliable school of Hyppochrytos and Ghalon, or Old Big Dose, and also a skilled surgeon of dear old Whitesburg.

W. T. WINDELL

One of the most popular and reliable of the many timber buyers to visit Hazard frequently is Mr. W. T. Windell of Louisville, who will be found at or about the old historic Combs' Hotel. When he contracts for certain kinds of timber and it is delivered at the places designated timber man are sure to get their money without delay. Mr. Windell has perhaps personally inspected more acres of timber than any other timber man since he has been engaged in the business. Mr. Windell represents a firm of Schwartzwalter Stave and Lumber Co., Louisville, Ky.

HAZARD HARDWARE COMPANY

Mr. Wm. Engle is the Manager and Treasurer of the Hazard Hardware Company which is incorporated and is doing business in the Johnson Building centrally located on Main Street opposite the court house. The interior of the storeroom is 21 by 80 feet and there is also a spacious warehouse for supplies. The business is capitalized at $5,000. Chas. Petrey is Secretary; the President is J. L. Morrison who is interested in other enterprises, and S. B. Brashear is the Vice-President.

Mr. Engle, the manager, was born at Dwarf, Perry County, June 6, 1885, and was recently married to Miss Fannie Berta Beaven and they are now housekeeping in Hazard. Before engaging in the hardware business extensively Mr. Engle was a member of the Kelley-Engle Drug Company for five years, and he enjoys a wide acquaintance in Perry and adjacent counties. There is a large volume of trade in hardware, tinware, implements, ect., and the business is constantly expanding.

ISAAC B. RICHIE

Mr. Isaac B. Richie, of the staple and fancy grocery firm of Napier & Richie, doing a large business in Hazard in a retail way, was born in Knott County, July 14, 1874, and located in Hazard three years ago, before the railroad was built, showing his faith in Hazard as a good place to settle. Before coming here Mr. Richie had a long and useful career as a teacher in Knott County, when he taught for one term in Perry County, having taught in all some fifteen years. At one time Mr. Richie engaged in the dry goods business with Mr. John G. Combs and for awhile was associated with L. E. Petrey, when he became a member of the firm Napier & Richie, as successors to Baker Bros.

Mr. Richie married Miss Sallie Hall of Knott County and they have three sons and one daughter, two sons having just graduated. Mr. Richie is a firm believer of Hazard's future prosperity and thinks the town has the best location on the new line of railroad and that in a short time it will be a rival to Winchester. He stated that his business has a gratifying normal increase. Mr. Richie's ancestors came form Virginia of which he is proud. His partner, C. L. Napier, in the mercantile enterprise, resides in Knott County and they are related by marriage. Mr. Napier is engaged in farming and stock raising, and served one term as Sheriff of Knott County.

COLONEL E. C. BRASHEAR

Colonel E. C. Brashear was born January 29, 1855, at Leatherwood, at Big Branch, on North Fork of the Kentucky River. His father was Eli Brashear, born near the same spot; his mother was Sarah Campbell, born on the mouth of Campbell Branch in Perry County. Both parents were long lived and the mother died in 1899, and the father died recently on the night of December 31, 1912, or January 1, 1913, and it is indeterminate, and both reached the scriptural age and over. He reached a good old age - 88 years or over; four score years.

The subject of this sketch, being hearty as a buck, that sniffs the pure mountain ozone, and methodical; and combining the wit and geniality of his parents, will doubtless reach the century mark. He is a gay and festive widower, and childless; his wife was Elizabeth Woods, of a good family.

Our "mutton" is one of the busiest of Hazardites, for be it known that no flies light on any of the employees or advisors of the only and original D. Y. Combs, his gifted brother-in-law. How many stories I could weave from the rich store house of this man's retentive memory; but life is short and time is fleeting, and the grave is not the goal; dust thou art, and to dust returneth, was not spoken of the soul; and we two old cronies, of the same age, are in Lexington, and of the same age, I being junior by seven months, and we can find metal more attractive than doling out doleful biographical sketches, before we are long dead.

Elhanon Campbell Brashear, an historical and scriptural name, and a poetical and patriotic name, too, when you connect it with the Scotch Highlander clans, of proud and haughty lineage, that never lowered flag for king or lord, a strain as proud as the ancestry of Robert Bruce, or Wallace.

But my space is limited, and hence, I must be brief as women's love. I am trying to biograph E. C. Brashear, Manager of the important D. Y. Combs establishment, and it is difficult on account of the vast amount of local history he knows of others, and his modesty and indifference to his own fame and history.

He is a widower, childless, alas, but a lover of children. He is brother to Mrs. D. Y. Combs, or "sister Mary" whom everybody reveres.

COUNTY CLERK, J. D. DAVIS

Mr. J. D. Davis, the present efficient Clerk of the Perry County Court, is holding his first term in office and he is a candidate for the re-nomination and believes that he will receive the endorcement of the voters of Perry County at the coming primary election. The office has been conducted in a commendable manner, and the many important duties have been promptly and accurately done by Mr. Davis who is proficiently assisted by his father, Mr. W. O. Davis, and Deputy Clerk L. C. Campbell, and other stenographers.

Mr. Davis was born in Hazard, at the Hazard Hotel, August 1, 1882, and after attending common schools taught school for one year, Later he took a business course at Smith's Business College, Lexington. He is a brother to R. O. Davis, the merchant, and K. K. Davis. Mr. davis went to Garrard County, Ky., for his helpmeet, who was Miss Winnie Ison, of the large and prominent Ison family so well known in the Bluegrass. They have one son, Charles Fletcher, and two daughters, Blanche the elder, and Lucille.

L. C. CAMPBELL

Mr. L. C. Campbell, first assistant County Clerk, and expert stenographer, was born in Perry County, January 14, 1887 at Yerkes, and he had an experience in teaching for fix years, and after graduating in a business college in Lexington, he taught a short term in Smith's Business College. He is an expert accountant and bookkeeper. For awhile he engaged in merchandising. He is a son of Wm. Campbell, of Yerkes, and there are seven brothers and all grown.

Mr. Campbell married Miss Hattie Taylor of Walton, Ky., and is now housekeeping in Hazard. He holds the important office of Secretary of the Hazard Commercial Club, and takes a lively interest in the material and moral development of his native county; is a teacher in the Sunday School, and is interested in the Hazard Baptist Institute.

Mr. Campbell is not a prospective candidate for official favors at present but he is popular and influential, and official honors may be his without the asking if he consented.

KINNER PHOTOGRAPHER

Mr J. G. Kinner is a native Kentuckian who was born in Boyd County March 29, 1879. Before locating in Hazard he traveled extensively. Over two years ago Mr. Kinner and wife and two attractive daughters, aged eight and ten years, Ruth Farrel and lucille, came to Perry County. He was then with a railroad contracting company. He is the official photographer for the L. & N. Railroad. Mr. Kinner suffered a great loss to him when his gallery and contents was destroyed by fire at Huntington, W. Va. Mrs. Kinner was Miss Ruth J. Rankin of Boyd County.

W. G. Holt

The Hazard Wholesale Grocery Company, of which Mr. W. G. Holt is the sole owner, was established November 20, 1912. Mr. Holt is a native of the Bluegrass where it grows the richest and waves the greenest in Paris, Bourbon County, Ky., and after a long time engaged in mining and merchandising from 1904 up to 1912 in Mexico when he returned to Kentucky and it was through the influence of his brother, Mr. L. B. Holt, of the Merchants Transfer Company of Lexington that Mr. Holt was induced to locate in Hazard, his brother telling him of the big shipments handled by him for this point from Lexington wholesalers.

The important establishment is located opposite the East side of the court house and is doing a thriving business in shipping both East and West on the railroad and is supplying retailers in Hazard and Perry County being enabled to cut prices over Lexington grocers in the saving of freight rates. Mr. Holt is a pushing business man and popular personally and socially and he has never for a moment regretted that he located here. His expressions while conserative are optimistic regarding the future progress of Hazard and his adopted county of Perry.

EDITOR, W. C. TROSPER

W. C. Trosper, Treasurer and Manager of the Herald Publishing Company, established the plant nearly two years ago, and it seems to be a permanency. Mr. Trosper is a skilled newspaper man and job printer, worked for five years before going to Chicago where he spent fifteen years at the craft; is a member of Chicago Typographical Union No. 16, and keeps his "card" alive. He was formally on the Pineville Sun, and at one time won a prise for the most attractive ad, offered by a Louisville newspaper. During the Spanish-American war, Mr. Trosper enlisted, and saw service in the Philippines. He is married and has two children.

[This is the end of the excerpts. Freddie]

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Lynda Combs Gipson
Updated April 2006